Hoverophone: Theremin Synth
Hand-Played Drone Pad
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
The theremin. Reinvented. On your phone. Play it in the air with your hands, no touch. Real synth voices, now with microtonal quarter tones.
The theremin, reinvented on your iPhone. Play it in the air with your hands, no touch.
Hoverophone is a theremin you actually play by waving your hands in the air. Point the front camera at your hand and move; there is no touch, no controller, no tapping glass. Raise and lower your hand to glide the pitch, spread your thumb and finger apart to swell the volume, slide left to right to pan. It is the eerie, sci-fi theremin sound, played with a wave of the hand.
Wondering how to play the theremin, or whether the theremin is hard to play? This is the easiest way to start: raise a hand and you are already playing.
A REAL SYNTH, AND POLYPHONIC
Continuous synth voices, sine, triangle, saw and square, with drive and ring modulation in stereo, from a soft ambient pad to a metallic, otherworldly drone. It tracks up to four hands at once, so a theremin can finally play chords, and you can pin voices in place to hold up to twelve notes ringing together. Tune the sound with one hand while you play with the other.
MICROTONAL, PLAYED IN THE AIR
Turn on the note grid and your in-air pitch snaps to a scale: 12-TET, or 24-TET quarter tones for real microtonal play. It is an isomorphic, honeycomb hex keyboard you play in the air, not by tapping glass, so every note lands in tune while your hands stay above the camera. Explore microtonal music, quarter tones and xenharmonic scales the moment you raise a hand, or leave the grid off and glide freely for the pure continuous theremin.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Play a real theremin in the air, front-camera hand tracking, no touch
- The classic continuous theremin glide, the sci-fi movie sound
- An in-air microtonal keyboard: 12-TET or 24-TET quarter tones on an isomorphic hex grid, or fully continuous
- Polyphonic: up to four hands live, and pin voices to stack up to twelve
- Synth voices with drive and ring modulation, stereo panning as you move
- Plays through the speaker or headphones, even on silent
- Fully offline: no account, no network, no data collected, the camera is processed on device and never leaves it
No presets, no wall of knobs, just your hand and the air. Fill a room with an ambient drone, improvise a generative soundscape, or conjure the spooky whine of a sci-fi movie. Works best in a bright room where the camera can see your hands.
The screen now stays awake while you play, so it won't lock during a live set.
The developer, Maxim Oransky, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Maxim Oransky
- Size
- 4.1 MB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.6 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.6 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.6 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.6 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.3 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Maxim Oranskiy